Essential reading for all students of the force of nature currently operating as Rik Roots. Here you will read Rik as he happens to other people, objects and occasional lines of verse. Complementary ice cream is served to selected guests on alternate Thursdays. Visitors are reminded not to complain about the kitten photos. No spitting, and no refunds!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Snowdrop sonnet rewrite: Section 6.1

So I'm making a start on rewriting some of Snowdrop's sonnets. Because it has to be done, innit. The previous version of this poem was making Snowdrop sound weedy and needy, too childish. Hopefully this redraft builds on the things she was telling herself earlier in the poem.

Caught in a Hug of Madness

"I do not know you people: soldiers come
to life from history books, I think, and yet
you found me, fed me. Kindness, or ... a threat
perhaps, for something doesn't fit. This slum
of a church -- I knew this place before it congealed.
These stones feel hard and real and safe inside:
ruins they were, their roofless pillars wide
to catch the sun and rain. What magic healed
its broken state -- does your belief in God
build miracles from mists? Oh no. No!
Some prayers to a wood statue glued to a cross
cannot explain this mess, it rides roughshod
through every thing I know. No crop can grow
so quick ... this is a lie, and I'm still lost!"

You want a bit of me?

Set on a planet far from Earth, The Gods in the Jungle is an investigation of the drives and desires, fears and beliefs of the various peoples and classes of a crumbling society, through the eyes of those immediately involved in events which threaten to bring an Empire to its knees.

The RikVerse

The RikVerse website is a living book of poems, regularly revised and updated with new work as the muse I ride sees fit

22 Facets of my Father

A set of poems loosely inspired by the Major Arcana tarot cards, investigating the relationship between a father and a son.